MANILA, Philippines—  The country’s film industry, which employs about 300,000 people, is calling for a tax holiday after incurring around P16 billion in losses since the pandemic hit the country last year.

MANILA – An official of the National Task Force Against Covid-19 (NTF) on Monday urged local government units to increase their Covid-19 vaccination numbers in order to achieve 80 percent population protection soon.

MANILA – A health official on Monday estimated active Covid-19 cases in the National Capital Region (NCR) may decrease to 10,000 by the end of October if it remains under Alert Level 4 accompanied by short time from detection to isolation.

MANILA – The Philippines has updated the testing and quarantine protocols for international travelers coming from the “green” and “yellow” lists of countries, territories, and jurisdictions.

MANILA – Members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) will meet Thursday afternoon to discuss the possible revisions to the arrival protocols for international travelers and the proposed reopening of cinemas in Metro Manila.

MANILA – A Dutch reality TV show is looking at northern Palawan as its potential filming site this year, describing the country as "a one in a million location" for shooting all reality shows.

Italian cinemas will be permitted to open at full capacity from Monday, October 11 following a new government ruling.  The new rules, which also apply to theatres, museums and concert halls, will require proof of vaccination and mask-wearing from attendees and apply to all regions labelled as white – which signifies that Covid is under control. Currently all regions in Italy are white, with none labelled yellow (at risk) or red (full lockdown required), although this will be reviewed on Monday.

GENEVA –  The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday called on people to get coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines, saying 99 percent of Covid-19 deaths are among unvaccinated people.